JW Player is the solution for seamless video playback across browsers and media types. This media player plugin is brigning all power of JW Player 8 into Moodle.
Using commercial version of JW Player requires paid subscription. Free trial (non-commercial licensed) is available, which downgrades to limited functionality free edition after trial period is expired. Learn more at https://www.jwplayer.com/pricing/. Open source version of JW Player 8 is not supported yet.
The player plugin installation is pretty strightforward. Plugin files need to be
placed in ./media/player/jwplayer directory in Moodle, then you will need to go
through installation process as normal by loggining in as admin.
When the player plugin installation is completed, the plugin configuration page will be displayed (alternatively you may access it via Site Administration -> Plugins -> Media players). To start using the player, library hosting method need to be choosen and configured (see below).
Once the player is configured, the final step would be to enable the player on Manage media players page in Site Administration area and move it above other players to give it a higher priority (or according to your preference).
It is recommended to use cloud-hosted player library if you need flexibility and control over features and player layout through JWPlayer dashboard. You need to specify library URL to use cloud-hosted method, which can be obtaned from Player Downloads & Keys page of JWPlayer dashboard. In "Cloud Hosted Player Libraries" section of the dashboard, select a player title from the dropdown menu and copy "Cloud Player Library URL".
You can use self-hosted method if you have Enterprise subscription. In this
case you need to download library from Player Downloads &
Keys page of JWPlayer
dashboard, unpack it and place contents in /media/player/jwplayer/jwplayer/
directory in Moodle. This is where plugin will be looking for jwplayer.js
file when you choose self-hosted implementation in the plugin settings. Using
self-hosted methods requires a license key that also needs to be specified in
plugin settings.
Open source version for non-commerical use of JWPlayer is available on GitHub. This is not supported yet by this plugin, but code contributions are more than welcome (#1).
Any media content added to Moodle through HTML editor (either using the URL or media embedding dialog), as well as File/URL resource, will be rendered and played using JW Player if the format is supported and enabled in the plugin configuration. For more details on supported formats see Supported Video and Audio Formats Reference on JW Player website*.
* Although, it is not said explicitly, player has no issues playing mov and ogg video formats.
The player default width and height is defined in "Common setting" area of "Manage media players" page. Player size defined in JWPlayer dashboard for cloud-hosted player is not used, as player settings provide flexibility to define size and aspect ratio.
When playing audio files, player switches into Audio mode (only control bar is shown) and default width is used.
In cloud-hosted library mode, choosing specific player version is not possible, the latest is always used. However, in player configuration on the Dashboard user can choose between Production and Beta release channels.
If self-hosted mode is used, choosing a different version is a matter of
downloading desired JW8 release from "Player Downloads & Keys" page and
replacing files in ./media/player/jwplayer/jwplayer directory.
It is currently not possible to use JWPlayer in Moodle mobile app. This media plugin will gracefully fallback to html5 video/audio tag (even if media file is provided as URL link) if you navigate to page containing video.
Global HTML attributes in the player link will be applied to the rendered player outer div tag. In addition, attribures that start with data- (but not data-jwplayer-) will be applied to player's outer div tag.
HTML attributes in the media file <a> tag that start with data-jwplayer- prefix,
will be used as player configuration options. The possible options are:
autostart, controls, height, mute, repeat, width, description, mediaid, subtitles
For full description of each option, please refer to configuration reference on JW Player website.
For example, <a data-jwplayer-autostart="true" href="https://some.stream.org/functional.webm">functional.webm</a> will
make player start playing video automatically on page load.
You can use data-jwplayer-subtitles attribute to add subtitles: <a href="https://some.stream.org/functional.mp4" data-jwplayer-subtitles="English: http://someurl.org/tracks/functional.txt" data-jwplayer-description="some description">test subtitles</a>
This fork is based on JWPlayer 7 version of media plugin, which is no longer maintained (JWPlayer deprecated version 7 support on 15/10/20).
Upgrading plugin to version 8 has been funded by Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne